Beautiful Moments: 2023
This is my fourth year writing an annual review of my most special memories. Every year, the collections have gotten longer; I’m getting getting better at living life with my eyes open for the moments I want to keep forever… Memory is fickle, and we lose so much of our lives — not just the mundane, but the truly sublime as well. These posts are my attempts to hold on.
2023: Connect
I’ve been thinking about how Joey and I can build a life here, so far away from the place we began. About how it will continue to feel a little bit impossible with shallow roots… I’m beginning to wonder if I need to make it all a bit more explicit: “I’m choosing you. I want to show up for you. I want to be inconvenienced for you. I would love for that to be mutual. Can I count on you? Can I love you?”
Beautiful Moments: 2022
Maybe more than any other year, this was the one that made me wish I could keep all the memories. But that’s not how memory works. Memory selects the shiny, the sublime, the emotionally intense; and, as always, this exercise for myself is about the beautiful.
Beautiful Moments: 2021
Each year brings good and bad, light and dark, joy and pain. I try to hold it all as it comes: soak up the piercing beauty, excavate silver linings, find meaning in the highs and lows of being human. But memory is a finicky thing; it discards what seems like most of our lives, holding onto just a few glimmering moments. So here are a few of my moments, as they unfolded through this year.
For Further Reading - September 2021
I’ve come to believe that the best thing any of us can do is find smart, kind, faithful people who we disagree with and listen to them. For real.
And while I probably spend too much time on Twitter, my favorite thing about it is that these people are always sharing the most amazing articles. So below is a little sampling of what I read this month…
Not a Decorator!
There are a handful of careers that everyone thinks they get because they saw it on tv. It’s probably most commonly the long-running tv dramas, but in my case it’s home renovation shows and the meteoric rise of home decor and residential design Instagram accounts.
From Joey: Why I Reject Christian Nationalism
It is painful for me to see family, friends, and respected Christian leaders adopt the toxic values of Christian Nationalism that have been spreading for years, and have exploded during the Trump administration. Trump's slogan of “America First” perfectly captures the sentiment held by this value system: “Me First”. As a Christian, this pride and selfishness should be appalling.
Beautiful Moments: 2020
It’s wonderful, the way time smooths edges and crystalizes beauty. Every year brings good and bad, light and dark, joy and pain. It’s true, the scale on 2020 seems tilted, but there was beauty even here. And memory is a finicky thing; it discards what seems like most of our lives, holding onto just a few glimmering moments. Here are a few of my moments, as they unfolded through this year.
The Truth is a Thing We Can Know
I have been told: “Well, that’s your opinion. We can agree to disagree.” No, I cannot agree to disagree on facts. I refuse.
Generally speaking, I am willing to agree to disagree on the role of government, on the best policy solutions to our problems, on who will best lead our government. These are things that lie within opinion and world view. But the idea that on most things there is a truth we can know is not a partisan one.
So I Started A Blog
The truth is that I don’t particularly want to be a Blogger or an Influencer. I don't want to quit my day job. I don’t want to spend my time planning Follow Fridays, giveaways, and sponsored trips. I don’t want to style my food instead of eating it… none of that is my goal here.